Labour dept names most ‘problematic’ sectors in inspections carried out

The agriculture sector, construction industry and retail space have been identified as among the most “problematic” sectors in raids carried out by the labour department.

The department has been in the news recently over the series of raids on restaurants it conducted around the country. This follows a video circulated on TikTok by a former waitress at Menlyn Park's Babel restaurant in Pretoria, who claimed the restaurant was violating labour laws. Other popular restaurants raided included Ocean Basket, also in Menlyn, as well as Tang restaurant and Mugg & Bean in Johannesburg.

The department this week provided an update on its work and unveiled plans to scale up the number of inspectors from 2,000 to 20,000 to ensure businesses' compliance with labour laws.

Spokesperson Teboho Thejane said most inspectors were based in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and Eastern Cape.

“The largest provinces take up about 60% of the resources and we conduct about 27,000 inspections per month,” he told TimesLIVE.

Thejane said most inspections were “proactive” and “target problematic and high risk sectors”. General raids are conducted daily while “high impact” ones take place quarterly.

“We also have reactive inspections that are triggered by complaints [as well as] incidents. Some are as a result of complaints and tip-offs/whistleblowing. Inspections may be random or planned, depending on the nature.

“Some of the problematic sectors are construction, iron and steel, agriculture, domestic work, wholesale and retail and hospitality.”

Speaking on the findings made from these raids, Thejane said noncompliance levels were found to be between 30% to 85% and the highest violations were under the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA), Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act, Employment Equity Act and Unemployment Insurance Act.

While sanctions from violations often included fines and penalties, violations of OHSA “may lead to prosecution by the National Prosecuting Authority”.

TimesLIVE